CR 2 (Chapter 9 – Test 2)

Questions 1-5 are based on the following passage:

Passage 1 is adapted from Jonah Lehrer, “Under Pressure: the Search for a Stress Vaccine, © 2010 Wired magazine. Passage 2 is adapted from Kristin Sainani, “What, Me Worry?” © 2014, Stanford magazine.

Passage 1

Chronic stress, it turns out, is an extremely dangerous condition. While stress doesn’t cause any single disease – in fact, the causal link between stress and ulcers has been largely disproved – it makes most diseases significantly worse. The list of ailments connected to stress is staggeringly diverse and includes everything from the common cold and lowerback pain to Alzheimer’s disease, major depressive disorder, and heart attack. Stress hollows out our bones and atrophies our muscles. It triggers adult-onset diabetes and may also be connected to high blood pressure. In fact, numerous studies of human longevity in developed countries have found that psychosocial factors such as stress are the single most important variable in determining the length of a life. It’s not that genes and risk factors like smoking don’t matter. It’s that our levels of stress matter more.

Furthermore, the effects of chronic stress directly counteract improvements in medical care and public 20 health. Antibiotics, for instance, are far less effective when our immune system is suppressed by stress; that fancy heart surgery will work only if the patient can learn to shed stress. As pioneering stress researcher Robert Sapolsky notes, “You can give a guy a drug-coated stent, but if you don’t fix the stress problem, it won’t really matter. For so many conditions, stress is the major long-term risk factor. Everything else is a short-term fix.”

Passage 2

(1) According to a 2013 national survey by the American Psychological Association, the average stress level among adults is 5.1 on a scale of 10; that’s one and a half points above what the respondents judged to be healthy. (2) Two-thirds of people say managing stress is important, and nearly that proportion had attempted to reduce their stress in the previous five years. (3) Yet only a little over a third say they succeeded at doing so. (4) More discouraging, teens and young adults are experiencing higher levels of stress, and also are struggling to manage it.

“Stress has a very bad reputation. It’s in pretty bad shape, PR-wise,” acknowledges Firdaus Dhabhar, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford. “And justifiably so,” he adds.

(1) Much of what we know about the physical and mental toll of chronic stress stems from seminal work by Robert Sapolsky beginning in the late I970s. (2) Sapolsky, a neuroendocrinologist, was among the first to make the connection that the hormones released during the fight-or-flight response-the ones that helped our ancestors avoid becoming dinner-have deleterious effects when the stress is severe and sustained. (3) Especially insidious, chronic exposure to one of these hormones, cortisol, causes brain changes that make it increasingly difficult to shut the stress response down.

But take heart: Recent research paints a diffe rent portrait of stress, one in which it indeed has a positive side. “There’s good stress, there’s tolerable stress, and there’s toxic stress,” says Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University, an expert on stress and the brain who trained both Sapolsky and Dhabhar.

(1) Situations we typically perceive as stressful-a confrontation with a co-worker, the pressure to perform , a to-do list that’s too long-are not the toxic type of stress that’s been linked to serious health issues such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, severe depression and cognitive impairment. (2) Short bouts of this sort of everyday stress can actually be a good thing: (3) Just think of the exhilaration of the deadline met or the presentation crushed, the triumph of holding it all together. (4) And, perhaps not surprisingly, it turns out that beating yourself up about being stressed is counterproductive, as worrying about the negative consequences can in itself exacerbate any ill effects.

1.Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between the passages?

2. The authors of both passages would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

3. Which choice provides the best evidence that the author of Passage 2 would agree with the claim made in line 1 of passage 1?

4. The author of Passage 2 would most likely attribute the effects of chronic stress described in paragraph 2 of Passage 1 to

5. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

Questions 6-15 are based on the following passage:

Passage 1

It is well known and documented that pregnancy in women over 40 brings an increased probability of health complications for the baby. For example, a woman’s risk of having a baby with chromosomal abnormalities increases with her age. The most well-known complication of advanced maternal age is Down syndrome, a genetic disorder where the baby presents with both cognitive problems and physical irregularities.

What is not commonly known is that recent studies have revealed that men over 40 also risk passing on serious medical conditions to their children. In addition to problems such as low birth weight, advanced paternal age can cause schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism. Scientists are focusing their research on sperm—mainly its genetic quality, but also its volume and mobility, all of which typically decrease with age—as a possible cause.

Passage 2

The cerebral cortex is the outside part of the brain that looks like a maze. Much like the intestines, the shape allows for more surface area in a confined space. The cerebral cortex plays a fundamental role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness.

Studies have found that in people with brain disorders that originate during fetal development, such as autism, certain areas of the cerebral cortex are shaped differently than those of healthy people.

Therefore, there must be a link between problems in the physical development of the brain during pregnancy and mental illnesses.

6. Which one of the following statements can be inferred from Passage 1?

7. What topic do Passages 1 and 2 have in common?

8. As used in Passage 1, the word “presents” most nearly means

9. Which one of the following statements best supports the main point of Passage 2?

10. The phrase “chromosomal abnormalities” in Passage 1 refers to

Questions 6-15 are based on the following passage:

Passage 1

It is well known and documented that pregnancy in women over 40 brings an increased probability of health complications for the baby. For example, a woman’s risk of having a baby with chromosomal abnormalities increases with her age. The most well-known complication of advanced maternal age is Down syndrome, a genetic disorder where the baby presents with both cognitive problems and physical irregularities.

What is not commonly known is that recent studies have revealed that men over 40 also risk passing on serious medical conditions to their children. In addition to problems such as low birth weight, advanced paternal age can cause schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism. Scientists are focusing their research on sperm—mainly its genetic quality, but also its volume and mobility, all of which typically decrease with age—as a possible cause.

Passage 2

The cerebral cortex is the outside part of the brain that looks like a maze. Much like the intestines, the shape allows for more surface area in a confined space. The cerebral cortex plays a fundamental role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness.

Studies have found that in people with brain disorders that originate during fetal development, such as autism, certain areas of the cerebral cortex are shaped differently than those of healthy people.

Therefore, there must be a link between problems in the physical development of the brain during pregnancy and mental illnesses.

11. Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the assertion in the second sentence of Passage 1?

12. The author of Passage 2 mentions the intestines in order to

13. In Passage 1, the word “irregularities” most nearly means

14. The major difference between the passages is that Passage 1 is concerned with

15. As used in Passage 2, the word “fundamental” most nearly means